Yet, John the Baptist was baptizing Jews, telling them they needed to repent of their sins and be prepared for the Messiah's arrival. This was new to the Jewish folk of that time and this is why we hear so much about the Jewish leaders questioning John about who he is and what he is doing. It seems that by Jesus choosing to be baptized by John, he is identifying himself to be one with those he has come to love. Jesus is saying he is one with us. And God replies to Jesus' choice by identifying him as "my Son" with whom "I am well pleased." The Gospel writer is clearly giving Jesus biblical authority at the beginning of Jesus' ministry based in the Hebrew Testament, specifically from the Psalms and from Isaiah, both of which we heard earlier today.

Through this identification by God of Jesus as his beloved Son, Jesus is changed. As he is declared "Son of God" in his baptism, so we in turn are brought into the family of God by our baptism and we are "marked as Christ's own forever" and we too are changed. And this means, quite plainly, something is different for us.  

During the baptismal service the prayer offered by the priest after the Prayers for the Candidates, as well as the prayer said over the waters of baptism just before the actual manual act, are quite clear about what this change entails:

"Grant that all who are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ your Son may live in the power of his resurrection...We thank you for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection...."

With being buried and resurrected in this act of baptism, something has died. Being made part of the Body of Christ in our baptism, we die to the old and are made new. We die and then share the resurrection and become one with Christ. This can be rather startling and off-putting to folks whether this language is new to us or not. Why talk about death at what is thought of as a happy time?

And it is not only death that takes center stage, but these are awfully powerful images of water we have here: "baptized into Christ's death", in the waters of baptism "we are buried with Christ in his death." By these waters of baptism "we share in his resurrection." What we witnessed last week was a re-creation of Jesus' baptism, of his death on Calvary hill and of his resurrection three days later. All of these events are summarized into that baptismal event we participated in last week. And all of these things have to do with community and being a part of this new living entity which is the Body of Christ which we...all of us...are. All of these things we witnessed last week are brought back to our present reality by today's story of Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River.